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Quickstart

From OpenSimulator

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Quickstart Guide to Running OpenSim

*** This guide assumes that you will want to run a standalone server (so not connected to any grid) and that you are using Windows. This guide will later be expanded to include other Operating Systems and other modes (like grid mode or a hypergrid-connected standalone mode) ***

Before We Begin

Download OpenSim from http://www.osgrid.org/index.php/downloads , the most current version is usually the best option. Note that the Opensim version from Osgrid.org is preconfigured to connect your regions to OSGrid. .

Make sure to have .NET 4.0 installed.

Decide on where you will want to keep the files. This guide assumes that C:\OpenSim is used, but you may want to think of a better place than that.

Setting up OpenSim

1 - Unzip Opensim into its own folder, then rename the folder to just "OpenSim" and Move the folder to C:\ (You can move it elsewhere if you like, but I chose the root of C:\ because it's nice and short)

2 - Change into the folder that OpenSim was unzipped to. change to the bin folder and change into the Regions folder as well, you should see a file called Regions.ini.example, which you can ignore for now. Create a new text file and name it Regions.ini (with capital R), open it in Notepad and paste the following text:

I use this RegionUUID because it allows me to easily increment the last number in case I wish to add more regions later.
Note that if you add another region, it will need a different port and RegionUUID, so adding 1 to each new RegionUUID and port makes things easy to keep track of.

3 - Go back to the bin folder and change into the config-include folder. Copy the file StandaloneCommon.ini.example and name it StandaloneCommon.ini. Open the new file and replace all instances of the string "${Const|BaseURL}:${Const|PublicPort}" to localhost:9000
OPTIONAL: Find [GridInfoService] and change the gridname and the gridnick to something of your own choice.

4 - Go back to the bin folder again and open Opensim.ini, look for "[Architecture]" and remove the semicolon from the line that says 'Include-Architecture = "config-include/Standalone.ini"' and add a semicolon to the start of the line that says 'Include-Architecture = "config-include/GridHypergrid.ini"'

5 - From the Windows startmenu, open "Run" and enter "cmd" (without quotes). A black window should open. Now type "cd C:\OpenSim\bin" and hit enter, then enter "OpenSim.exe" and press enter to give opensim its first run.

6 - You will be asked the following questions:

New estate name [My Estate]:
Estate owner first name [Test]:
Estate owner last name [User]:

Note that this info can be changed late on, so for now, let's go with the defaults.

(Once you see "INITIALIZATION COMPLETE FOR My Region - LOGINS ENABLED", you will know that the startup is complete)

7 - You will need an account to log in with, so we now issue the command "create user". the system will ask you the following questions:

First name [Default]:
Last name [User]:
Password:
Email []:
User ID [random UUID]:

You must do this for each user that you wish to add.
Once you are done creating users, enter "quit" and press enter to exit the server, because we need to do one more thing.

8 - Edit OpenSim.ini and find the text "[Estates]". You will want to uncomment (by removing the leading semicolon) and change the following lines:

These settings allow you to assign an estate owner, which is important because you will want to have as much control over your regions as possible.

9 - Start the server again (always via the run=>cmd way!), then start your viewer and choose "localhost" as the grid to log into. To the best of my knowledge, this is a preset in all third party viewers.

Some more pointers:

- Once you've logged in, you will find yourself on a tiny island, looking like Ruth (the classic default avatar from Second Life). To change your island into flat land, go back to the cmd console and enter "terrain fill 21". This creates a flat land at 21 meters height (default water level is 20). This command also comes in handy if you mess up your terraforming and what to start over.

- If you downloaded inventory archives and wish to import them into your own inventory, use the command "load iar --merge Firstname Lastname /goodies password C:\path\to\stuff.iar", where /goodies is the name of the folder in your inventory where the contents of the archive should be placed.